The UK may be sitting on vast reserves of shale gas accessible with today’s technology to the petrochemicals industry only through the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking”. Unfortunately for the industry and its lobbyists there are strong public opinions on fracking not least because of five major environmental and health concerns about its ...

Chesapeake Energy said it replaced a damaged wellhead and gained control of a Pennsylvania natural gas well which last week suffered a blowout. Thousands of gallons of contaminated frack water spilled from a natural gas well near Canton, a home was destroyed and two residents were injured. The contaminated water got into a nearby stream before crews could stop the leak. Seven families were ...

The extraction of natural gas from deep shale formation requires the use of hydraulic fracturing or ‘fracking', which involves injecting water and chemicals to rupture deep shale. A predicted boom in Michigan has raised public concerns about water supply, use and contamination. A new natural gas exploration and production boom could be starting in Michigan in the wake of a surprisingly ...

The drilling procedure called fracking didn't cause much-publicized cases of tainted groundwater in areas of Pennsylvania and Texas, a new study finds. Instead, it blames the contamination on problems in pipes and seals in natural gas wells. After looking at dozens of cases of suspected contamination, the scientists focused on eight hydraulically fractured wells in those states, where they ...

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) uses millions of gallons of water, sand and a chemical cocktail to break up organic-rich shale to release natural gas resources. Due to concerns that chemical leaks could contaminate groundwater, wells and other water resources, fracking is outlawed within some city limits. A University of Cincinnati researcher investigates. Deborah Kittner, a University of ...

Wastewater produced by hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’, has been chemically analysed in the most comprehensive study of its kind to date. The researchers found that produced water from three US fracking sites contained a diverse array of chemicals including toxic metals such as mercury and the carcinogens toluene and ethylbenzene. However, a group of harmful chemicals, ...

Natural gas producers and public water companies in the US race to meet the 19th May deadline, when they will no longer be able to release contaminated hydrofracking water into the state’s rivers. Altela has developed a technology, validated by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) and the US Department of Energy (US DOE), which meets the new regulations for clean ...

Hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and natural gas has not caused widespread harm to drinking water in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday in a report that also warned of potential contamination of water supplies if safeguards are not maintained. A draft study issued by the agency found specific instances where poorly constructed drilling wells or improper ...

A new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) raises concerns about the impacts of BC's growing shale gas industry. CCPA argues that hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the process used to extract unconventional natural gas from shale formations in northeastern BC, will put significant stress on the ...

The vast quantities of water needed to release oil and gas by fracturing rock formations are not available in large areas with the richest deposits – posing major challenges to the future viability of fracking. According to a report by the World Resources Institute (WRI), 38% of the areas ...

Exxon Mobil issued a report Tuesday that acknowledges the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing but also defends the practice as being better for the environment than other types of energy production and generation. Under pressure from the corporate responsibility group As You Sow, as well as New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer and other shareholders, Exxon agreed earlier this year to ...

A controversial method for extracting natural gas — hydraulic fracturing or 'fracking' — is stirring an environmental and property rights debate in South Africa. The controversy stems from concerns over the safety of the technology, which uses large amounts of clean water mixed with sand and various ...

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management will resume issuing oil and gas leases next year for federal lands in California after a new study found limited environmental impacts from fracking and other enhanced drilling techniques, the agency said Thursday. The move will end a halt that has stood since a federal judge ruled in 2013 that the federal agency failed to follow environmental law in allowing an ...

The California State Senate today rejected a bill that would have imposed a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, acidizing and other controversial forms of oil and gas development. The vote comes despite new polling released last week from the Natural Resources Defense ...

After environmentalists, lawmakers and the oil industry got together last year to draft Illinois' first regulations for hydraulic fracturing, the rest was supposed to be easy. The unusual collaboration was praised as a potential model for other states and a rare example of political foes finding common ground on a complex issue. But six months after the regulations were signed into law, the ...

The U.S. Coast Guard wants to allow barges filled with fracking wastewater to ply the nation's rivers on their way toward disposal. Many environmentalists are horrified, but industry groups say barge transport has its advantages. Now, the wastewater is usually disposed of by truck or rail, which poses more risk for accidents than shipping by barge, according to a government report. And one ...

Hydraulic fracturing to drill for oil and natural gas has not caused widespread harm to drinking water in the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday in a report that also warned of potential contamination of water supplies if safeguards are not maintained. A draft study issued by the agency found specific instances where poorly constructed drilling wells or improper ...

Companies prospecting for oil off California's coast have used hydraulic fracturing on at least a dozen occasions to force open cracks beneath the seabed, and now regulators are investigating whether the practice should require a separate permit and be subject to stricter environmental review. While debate has raged over fracking on land, prompting efforts to ban or severely restrict it, offshore ...

Since the onset of the fracking boom almost a decade ago, every state in the US has been examining its geological resources in the hope of finding oil or gas it can access through this extraction method. Almost half the states are now producing at least some shale gas, with a few – Texas, Pennsylvania, California, Colorado, North Dakota – sitting on massive ...

The oil production technique known as fracking is more widespread and frequently used in the offshore platforms and man-made islands near some of California's most populous and famous coastal communities than state officials believed. In waters off Long Beach, Seal Beach and Huntington Beach - some of the region's most popular surfing strands and tourist attractions - oil companies have used ...

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